February 22, 2008 – Miami, Florida, United States…[Libna Stevens/IAD]
Seventh-day Adventist Churches throughout Inter-America will soon be able to connect globally with other Adventist communities through the internet thanks to software called netAdventist, especially designed to allow church entities to locally create and manage their own websites.
“Today is a high water day for the church in Inter-America because we are having a soft launch of the newest version of netAdventist, version 3.0,” said Pastor Leon Wellington, communication director for the church in Inter-America, as he addressed communicators during a netAdventist training seminar at Inter-American Division (IAD) headquarters in Miami, Florida, from Feb. 11-12. Attendees were also trained on news writing for the web and briefed on future events.
The software, developed by Three Angels Global Networking (TAGnet)–a lay-own supporting ministry owned by the Adventist World church.
The IAD is the third division to embark on enlisting churches onto the netAdventist platform, according to Danny Houghton, executive vice president of TAGnet.
“We do have already 2,000 websites on the NetAdventist platform,” he said, “1,000 in the North American Division and 1,000 in the South Pacific Division. Last January, we decided to completely rewrite the software to be able to handle a global implementation which involves the ability to have translation of the software and also the ability for the software to be modified by any area of the church.”
“”Today is the first day that we are putting our toes in the water to make this happen, the netAdventist platform has been designed to handle exponential growth,” Houghton added.
It is this growth potential that prompted IAD church leaders to begin setting up and working out the logistics since netAdventist’s first launch during the church’s General Conference annual council meetings in 2006.
“This will take communication in the Inter-American territory to a new level,” said Pastor Wellington. “It is going to bring us together as churches and organizations. Not only will we be able to get our information to the field at a faster pace, but it will be a greater guarantee of our information reaching the first level of the organization, which is the local church.”
“The Inter-American Division is providing websites to our churches for free,” added Pastor Wellington. “All they have to do is subscribe.”
During the coming months, aggressive training on the software will take place throughout the local territory as more and more churches enlist.
For Max Oviedo, communication director for the church in the Inter-Oceanic Mexican region, the netAdventist platform is just what the church is waiting for.
“It [netAdventist] will bring the church to the internet and it will place us in a worldwide plan where our young people and our churches will have the opportunity to share their programs and news with the rest of the world,” Oviedo said.
“This is another indication that we are a global family,” said Rodolfo Escobar, communication director in the Venezuela Antilles region. “I don’t think our minds can grasp the impact of what using netAdventist will do for our church [in Inter-America] and around the world. Our imagination has barely touched on it.”
“For Emileth Rosas, a webmaster for the church headquarters in Venezuela, netAdvenitst will benefit her work and stretch the time spent in programming and designing for the web.”This is such a great tool,” said Rosas. “I am so excited to implement this software in my territory. The software comes with so many ready-made templates and details that will ease the workload and give more time for managing the content.”
According to Pastor Wellington, the next three months will be a trial period limiting the number of churches which may enlist. This will provide an opportunity for the churches to become better acquainted with the system.
“As of the middle of the year and onward, we will be in a better position to engage more of our congregations on the system,” said Pastor Wellington.
For more information on how to subscribe your church to netAdventist for Inter-America, visit http://sites.interamerica.org
